QuoteProject
Even if you play perfectly, a fault of your opponent's can destroy the entire beauty of the game.
Vladimir Kramnik
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The outcome of a competition can be affected by factors beyond your control, even if you perform flawlessly.

This quote emphasizes the unpredictability of competitive situations. Even when one performs at their highest ability, external factors, such as the actions of opponents, can derail success and diminish the overall experience, highlighting the complex interplay of skill, chance, and circumstances in any competitive endeavor.

Themes

CompetitionControlPerformanceUnpredictabilityGame

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a sportsmanship speech to remind athletes about humility and the unpredictability of competition.

More from Vladimir Kramnik

Part of my preparation for the World Champion match against Kasparov was to be ready for his off-board tactics. I did not to react to them at all. Once you start thinking about these things during the game, even analysing them, you're caught.
Vladimir KramnikRead
I believe every chess player senses beauty, when he succeeds in creating situations, which contradict the expectations and the rules, and he succeeds in mastering this situation.
Vladimir KramnikRead
I don't know whether computers are improving the style of play, I know they are changing it. Chess has become a different game, one could say that computers have changed the world of chess. That is pretty clear.
Vladimir KramnikRead
I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.
Vladimir KramnikRead
When I speak of the beauty of a game of chess, then naturally this is subjective. Beauty can be found in a very technical, mathematical game for example. That is the beauty of clarity.
Vladimir KramnikRead
The development of beauty in chess never depends on you alone. No matter how much imagination and creativity you invest, you still do not create beauty. Your opponent must react at the same highest level.
Vladimir KramnikRead

Similar quotes

INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon others and carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon the back.
Ambrose BierceRead
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren't interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's.
Ezra Taft BensonRead
I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity.
Louis MacneiceRead
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo MachiavelliRead
Baseball, like Pericles' Athens (or any other good society), is simultaneously democratic and aristrocratic. Anyone can enjoy it, but the more you apply yourself, the more you enjoy it.
George WillRead
Race is a constant factor in American life. Yet reacting to every incident,real or imagined, is crippling, tiring, and ultimately counterproductive.
Condoleezza RiceRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.